Filthy town streets may attract vermin (From Ledbury Reporter)

Filthy town streets may attract vermin

8:40am Friday 22nd March 2013 in News

VERMIN could plague town streets at the start of the tourist season due to overflowing litter bins.

That is the fear of town councillors, who are concerned bins are not being emptied enough by Herefordshire Council’s contractor Amey. The matter was discussed at a meeting of the environment and leisure committee.

The mayor, Coun Phill Bettington, said: “It’s a health hazard with bins over flowing – vermin could come.”

Coun Annette Crowe, who is also chairman of the Ledbury Traders’ Association said: “The state of the High Street is absolutely filthy, with cigarette ends everywhere.”

Coun Tony Bradford was worried on the impression Ledbury might give to visitors this spring, “with two coaches a day already coming in, atleast”.

Coun Keith Francis said the matter was being made worse because some people were dumping their personal litter bags by the rubbish bins. Coun Bettington warned this was “fly-tipping”, and efforts would be made to find the culprits.

He said he did not know why litter bags were being left, but they would not be collected but would instead be inspected by enforcement officers, who would search them for names and addresses.

Bins in the St Katherine’s area and Bye Street were reported as overflowing, with “litter on the floor”.

Some bins for dog waste were not being emptied, such as on the town trail, off the Little Marcle Road.

But Coun Bettington said the two Amey contractors assigned to Ledbury were doing their best with the resources they had. He said the solution might be to draw up “a new programme of works”.

A spokesman for Herefordshire Council said they were aware of the problem and its contractors Amey were monitoring the situation.

“All bins in Ledbury, including dog bins, are emptied on a weekly basis. However, recently there has been an increase in rubbish left at the Little Marcle Road site.

“Amey contractors are monitoring the situation and have increased the collection there for a period of time while we assess any need for a review of collection frequency.” He added no official report had been logged about the issue but their enforcement team would investigate if it constituted fly-tipping.